Jenna woke up a few hours later confused about how she'd got back into bed. It took her a few minutes to remember the events that had led to Damon snapping her neck and a fresh wave of anger washed over her. How dare he? She had every intention of going downstairs and telling him exactly what she thought of him, which would probably consist of a rant with many profanities, when she heard a beeping noise from her purse. It took her a second to recognise it as the alert setting on her portable anomaly detection device. Grabbing the machine, she rushed downstairs to the living room to find her colleagues.
Stefan was the first to see her come down the stairs and a look of guilt flashed across his face.
"Jenna I'm sorry. They told me what Damon did."
"It's not you who needs to apologise Stefan and anyway that's not my main concern right now." She said, turning to the couch where Evan, Mac and Toby were sitting. "The anomaly detection device is going off."
Instantly their expressions turned to shock. Evan was the first to recover, the need to stop any creatures from killing or being killed always a high priority in his mind.
"Where is it?" He asked.
"Only a few miles from here. I know the place quite well." She said.
"We'll let you lead then." Evan replied as he stood up.
Jenna nodded in agreement before taking charge of the situation. "Toby and Mac, can you grab the gear from my room please? Bring as much as you can we have no idea what we're dealing with."
"What's going on?" Elena asked.
Jenna ran a tense hand through her hair. "I don't have time to explain. Can I borrow your car?"
"Aunt Jenna, tell me what's wrong." Elena demanded.
"I'll tell you later but right now we have a situation to deal with."
"Then let me come with you."
Jenna looked to Evan for help.
"It's dangerous. We can't risk you getting hurt." He said.
"I'm a vampire. I think I can handle myself." Elena argued.
Mac came downstairs with a large black case in each arm, followed by Toby who was carrying a similar amount. Elena had no idea what was inside them or what was going on but by the looks of things it wasn't something she liked her aunt being involved in.
"Where do you want these?" Mac asked.
Before anyone else could respond Elena was at the front door with her car keys. "My car's just out front. I'm coming with you." She informed them.
Mac and Toby both shot questioning glares at Jenna who shrugged. "She's right she can look after herself and I don't like that we're going in completely blind. Maybe having some backup would help."
"Ok where are we going?" Elena asked as she helped load the cases into the trunk.
"The old Lockwood estate by the swimming hole. Let me drive and the others can fill you in on the way." Jenna said.
"What about Stefan?"
"There's no room in the car and we'll be fine without him." Jenna replied.
"Guys we really need to get going." Mac pushed. "You two can argue on the way."
Jenna climbed in to the drivers seat and Evan took the seat next to her while Elena, Mac and Toby slid in to the back of the car.
"What's this big emergency?" Elena asked.
Evan was about to begin explaining when Toby interrupted.
"Wait a second something's come up on my phone. I've got a sniffer running on all dino stuff and it's flagged this video called 'Freaking Real Dino'. Looks like we've caught it early but the hits are going up fast." She said, bringing up the video in question and holding it out for Mac and Elena to watch as well.
"Is that a triceratops?" Elena asked.
"It certainly looks like it." Mac replied.
"It's an herbivore. We should be relatively safe." Jenna said without turning around. "Just be thankful it's not a raptor."
"Or an Albertosaurus." Evan added sadly.
"We're going after a dinosaur?"
"We're going to try and put it back in it's own time." Evan began to explain. "This device shows up when anomalies open, which are basically time portals. Sometimes when they open into prehistoric times dinosaurs find their way through and we try and get them home safely without changing anything or anyone seeing it."
"We've definitely failed with that last one." Mac said.
"I'm trying to shut it down." Toby replied, frantically typing on her laptop.
"You should stay here and work on that while we find the triceratops." Evan suggested.
"I'm not staying behind again Evan. Besides I can look after myself now."
"What if it gets exposed?"
"No one's going to take it seriously." Jenna pointed out.
"I'm not worried about some guy in Singapore tweeting it to his friends. I'm worried about locals recognizing that swimming hole and going out there to check it out."
"Not so much of a problem when half of the locals have fangs." Jenna joked.
"We still need to get out there as soon as possible." Evan said.
"We'll be there any minute." Jenna informed them.
A few minutes later Jenna pulled up the car by the swimming hole and everyone got out. Mac opened the trunk and started unloading the guns.
"What do you think we'll need to take this one down?" He asked Jenna.
"I'm not sure how much any of this will do against a full grown triceratops. This is bigger than anything we've been up against before. Bring as much as you can carry but I really want to avoid having to drag this thing back through the anomaly. As long as it doesn't try to attack us we should try and let it move back under its own power."
"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?"
"Not sure yet." She admitted.
Evan decided to take charge of the situation. "Right, Mac and Toby go find the anomaly. Make sure nothing else comes through. We'll find the dinosaur." He said. Toby took the anomaly detector and she and Mac followed the signals it was giving in search of the anomaly.
Jenna and Elena led Evan out to the area of the swimming hole where the video had been shot. Jenna knew the place well, having spent a lot of time in her teen years getting drunk there with Mason Lockwood and their friends.
Evan spotted a group of teenagers looking excitedly at someone's phone. "I think we know who shot the footage." He said.
"And you're just going to go up and ask them if they know where we can find a dinosaur?" Elena asked.
"Do you have a better plan?" Evan asked. When Elena shook her hear the trio started to walk up to the group of boys.
"Hey!" Jenna yelled. "You're the Freaking Real Dino guys, right?" She asked.
"Yeah. Cool, huh? Do you want me to sign your shirt?" He asked her and she rolled her eyes.
"Do you guys know which way it went?"
The guy pointed in the direction of the entrance to the Lockwood cellar.
"Thanks." Jenna smiled. She moved closer to the young boy and looked him in the eyes. "You will take down the video you shot from the internet and forget you ever saw a dinosaur." She compelled him before turning to face Evan and Elena. "We should go and find it. Elena can you make sure no one here remembers what happened?" She asked her niece who nodded. Jenna was pleased that she didn't argue and that she could try and keep her out of harms way for a little while longer. Besides, if the triceratops did come back she was sure Elena could look after herself.
Happy that the risk of the dinosaur being exposed was minimized, Evan and Jenna headed off through the trees, following whatever tracks Jenna could pick up on, along with the faint scent of something different that her vampire senses detected.
They were almost around by the opposite side of the swimming hole, nearest to the Lockwood cellar. From behind the trees they could see a full-grown triceratops drinking from the fresh water. Evan held up his tranquilizer gun defensively and Jenna put her hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"We don't want to have to shoot it." She reminded him. "They're not all vicious killers."
"A bit like vampires, right?" He teased.
"You could say that." Jenna laughed.
She started to move closer to get a better look at the dinosaur. It seemed to sense another presence nearby because it looked up from the water it was drinking and directly at Jenna. The triceratops stared at her for a few moments, taking in the sight of the new creature, as Jenna did the same.
Almost without warning the triceratops started to charge at her. She ran away from where Evan was stood so that he didn't get hurt. She knew she could out-run it but didn't know why she was having to. She hadn't posed a threat to it and all evidence pointed towards the species being a prey animal. It wasn't carnivorous and shouldn't be trying to eat her. She slowed down once she was sure it couldn't see her and ran at vampire speed back to Evan, who jumped slightly at her sudden appearance.
"I thought you said it was relatively harmless."
"I guess I was wrong. I don't know." She admitted.
At that moment Evan's phone started ringing. Seeing that Mac was calling he picked up.
"Have you found it yet?" He asked.
"Yeah. It's quite deep in the forest. How are things with Spikey over there?"
"Spikey?" Jenna mouthed to Evan who merely looked at her with a matching questioning expression.
"Did you find it?" Mac asked.
"Yeah we did but it went after Jenna. She's fine but we might have to take it out which means we're going to need Toby and Elena's help to get it back through that anomaly."
"You know it really doesn't help my ego that all these chicks are stronger than me." Mac commented.
"Your ego doesn't need any more boosting." Evan could hear Toby calling out from the background. Jenna obviously heard it too as she let out a small laugh.
While the rest of the team were discussing how they would carry the dinosaur back through the anomaly, Jenna noticed that it had returned to the swimming hole for another drink. Whilst searching her mind for an explanation of the triceratops' behaviour she saw the sunlight catching on its head plate revealing it to be slightly red. She looked down to see that her jacket was a matching colour and realised that it may have perceived her as a rival, which could be why it had charged at her on sight. She took off the jacket and left it in the dirt before approaching 'Spikey' again. Evan called out to her to ask what she was doing but she didn't reply, concentrating on the dinosaur so that she could pick up any early indication that it was about to charge at her again. Luckily, with her vampire speed, she didn't have to worry much about it catching her.
She approached the triceratops cautiously and waited once she was sure it had seen her. She didn't want to provoke it again by moving forward but it wasn't as if she was going to retreat either until she knew if her theory was correct. When she was all but certain it wouldn't attack her she took another couple of steps forward.
"What are you doing?" Evan asked.
"I don't think it's going to attack. Look at its colouring. It must've seen the red before and thought I was a rival." She explained. "Now we know it's safe we need to find a way to lure it back to the anomaly. Do you have directions?"
"Mac said it was quite a way into the forest so it could take a while to find them." He said.
Jenna heard Toby's voice very faintly though the phone that Evan was holding in his hand.
"I don't think we have long. The readings I'm getting are unstable."
Thinking on her feet, Jenna came up with a plan. "Toby I need you to hang up the phone and keep talking, I'll listen out for you and lead Spikey here to you."
"How exactly are you going to do that?" Mac asked.
"No time to explain." She shouted and Evan hung up the phone. He shot her a look of confusion but didn't question her. He trusted her judgement.
Jenna grabbed her previously discarded jacked and waved it in the triceratops' line of sight, yelling at Evan to get out of the way. Upon seeing the rival red the dinosaur sped towards Jenna, who ran towards where she cold hear Toby calling her name. Her survival instincts were telling her to run and vampire speed but she knew she couldn't or she'd risk loosing the dinosaur. Luckily, in what seemed like no time at all, she arrived at the anomaly site.
"Move!" She shouted and Toby and Mac obliged. With a skilled arm she threw her jacket through the anomaly and watched the triceratops follow it. Seconds later the anomaly had closed and the three of them breathed a sigh of relief.
Evan caught up with them shortly after and wrapped his arms around Jenna's waist. "Well done." He smiled before giving her a kiss. In her relief, Jenna made a move to deepen the kiss and Evan obliged as he saw Mac and Toby turn away awkwardly and head towards the car.
Once she was sure that they were alone, Jenna pushed the pair of them gently towards a nearby tree and started to kiss down Evan's neck. When she reached his neck she began to feel the undeniable hunger that made her want to bite him right there and drain his carotid artery. The second she felt her fangs growing she pushed back and looked away, not wanting to hurt him.
"What is it?" Evan asked.
Jenna shook her head, not wanting him to see her face again until it had returned to normal.
"Look at me." He commanded gently.
Slowly, she turned to face him as she took deep breaths to get herself back in control.
"I'm sorry." She muttered.
"You didn't do anything wrong." Evan assured her. "We're both going to need more time to get used to this and I'm not going to push you to go any further than what you feel ready for."
"How can you have so much faith in me?" She asked.
"Because you're amazing and I believe in you." He smiled as he took her hand. "Now lets find your niece and get out of here. I could do with some lunch."